A planner of the Benghazi attack reportedly met with Osama bin Laden

The aftermath of the
attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya that
occurred on September 11, 2012.REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori

Shortly before his own death in a US airstrike on Jan.
31, Harith al Nadhari, a senior sharia official in Al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), recorded an audio eulogy
for another slain jihadist, Mohammed al Zahawi.

Ansar al Sharia Libya confirmed earlier in the month that Zahawi,
the group's leader, had died of wounds he suffered while fighting
in Benghazi. And Nadhari wanted to make it clear that al Qaeda
considered Zahawi to be a "martyr."

Nadhari's audio recording, which was released via Twitter on Feb.
6, has been translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"Sheikh al Zahawi, may Allah have mercy on him, began his march
in [the] mid-nineties," Nadhari explained, according to SITE.

"Allah guided him [to] meet the reviving Imam Osama bin Laden
when Osama was in Sudan. Zahawi took from his determination and
learned from his methodology, then he was captured quickly by the
Saud government, the traitor to Allah and His Messenger," he
continued.

Zahawi's meeting with bin Laden in the 1990s is a strong
indication that he had long operated within al Qaeda's network.
His dossier since then buttresses the point.

Osama bin Laden, the late founder and head of Al
Qaeda.Getty
Images

Nadhari did not explain why
Zahawi was detained by the Saudi government, but the implication
is that Zahawi was involved in jihadist activities inside the
kingdom. Nadhari said that Zahawi was delivered to Muammar al
Qaddafi's regime, which "harmed" him during his "years of
imprisonment," but "did not weaken his strength nor lessen his
determination nor destabilized his faith."

Nadhari also offered a call for jihadist unity in Libya, saying
that the mission was not completed when Qaddafi fell. Some of
Nadhari's audio message appears to implicitly address the
infighting between the Islamic State's supporters in Libya and
the jihadists in Ansar al Sharia and other groups who refuse to
swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

In his eulogy of Zahawi, the deceased AQAP official called on the
"mujahideen in all your different groups, factions, and brigades"
to come together to fight General Khalifa Haftar's forces and the
West, which supposedly seeks to prohibit the implementation of
sharia law in Libya. "Align the rank and unite the purpose,"
Nadhari said, adding that the jihadists should "overcome" their
"passing disputes ... despite the differences in affiliations and
individual opinions."

AQAP is not the only official branch of al Qaeda to mourn Zahawi.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) issued its own eulogy for
the deceased Ansar al Sharia Libya leader online.

A man looks at documents
at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after the attack that
killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens,
Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012.AP

Ansar al Sharia Libya part of al Qaeda's international
network

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in
Benghazi, Libya, a popular meme held that Ansar al Sharia was
just a "local" jihadist group and was not part of al Qaeda's
international network. Abundant evidence at the time indicated
that this was false.

For instance, a report published in August
2012 by the Library of Congress and the Defense
Department's Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office
(CTTSO), "Al Qaeda in Libya: A Profile," connected Ansar al
Sharia to al Qaeda's clandestine network inside Libya. The
report's authors pointed out that one prominent Ansar al Sharia
leader in Derna, Sufian Ben Qumu, is an ex-Guantanamo detainee who
served as an al Qaeda operative before his detention
by US forces. Other facts demonstrated Ansar al Sharia's ties to
al Qaeda as well.

Ironically enough, the participation of Ansar al Sharia fighters
in the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack was itself an indication that the
group was, at a minimum, colluding with various al Qaeda
branches. At least three other al Qaeda groups took
part in the raid on the US Mission and Annex that
night.

Jihadists from both AQAP and AQIM were involved in the assault,
as were members of the so-called Muhammad Jamal Network (MJN).
AQAP and AQIM are formal branches of al Qaeda, while the MJN was
led by an Egyptian who was first trained by al Qaeda in the late
1980s and had long been a subordinate to Ayman al Zawahiri.

Ansar al Sharia's role in al Qaeda's global network was
eventually recognized by the United Nations Security Council,
which added the group to its al Qaeda
sanctions list in November 2014. The UN did not
directly sanction Zahawi, but did identify him as Ansar al
Sharia's leader in Benghazi. The UN also noted that Ansar al
Sharia in Benghazi works closely with AQIM and Al Mourabitoun, an
AQIM offshoot that remains loyal to Ayman al Zawahiri.